Most presidents have their hobbies. George W. Bush loved to clear brush on his Texas ranch, and to take long mountain bike rides. Bill Clinton played the saxophone. John Quincy Adams reportedly liked to skinny-dip in the Potomac River.
Barack Obama likes to play golf. And Republican challenger Mitt Romney doesn’t approve.
The Romney campaign on Wednesday launched a website, fortyfore.com, that takes a swing at Obama’s golf habit. The site says that Obama has played “1,584 holes since 2009″ — the equivalent of 88 rounds of golf as he nears the end of his third year in office. That would put Obama far short of House Speaker John Boehner, who reportedly works much harder on the links to maintain a single-digit handicap.
Romney’s fundraising site questions whether Obama should get “‘Fore’ More Years,” and invites Romney fans to donate $18 — or more — “to send President Obama on a permanent golfing vacation.”
“It’s time to have a president whose idea of being ‘hands on’ doesn’t mean getting a better grip on the golf club,” the website suggests.
Romney has been driving at Obama’s golfing habit all week. “He’s going off for 17 days for golf in the sun,” the candidate said during a teleconference with Iowa voters on Monday, about Obama’s upcoming trip to Hawaii.
Starting with William Howard Taft, 15 of the past 18 presidents have played golf. The most recent exception was Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Golf Digest reported in 2009 that the most capable presidential golfer was John F. Kennedy, followed by Dwight Eisenhower, who had a green installed outside the oval office, and Gerald Ford.
In terms of hobbies, Romney, a trim 64, is a keen runner. During his 2008 White House run a television ad entitled “Leadership” showed him jogging down a tree-lined road in shorts and sneakers. Romney and his energetic family hold a family triathlon — swimming, cycling and running — at their lakeshore vacation home in New Hampshire each summer.
